美しい姿の浅間山、しかし、活火山を忘れまい！

【写真をクリックし、拡大すると臨場感が出ます。】

　一昨日の寒さで浅間山に初冠雪がありました。この写真は昨日の午後３時に木部町の鏑川の土手をウォーキング中に撮影しました。一日経過しましたが、北側【右側】の「鬼押し出」の上の方が微かに白く見えます。

　一方、ご覧の通り、頂上【２５６８m】の火口から噴煙が勢いよく立ち上ってます。２０代のとき西の小諸側から１回、東の群馬県「峰の茶屋」側から２回登頂し、利根川の蛇行など関東平野が一望できる景色の素晴らしさが今でも脳裏に焼き付いてます。頂上は一周１kmほどある巨大な噴火口です。

　火口は桶の如く垂直に切り立っており、深さは推定２００mほどです。いずれのときも火口内の崖の途中から煙が出ており、硫黄の匂いがしました。この状況が数百万年前から続いているのでしょう。特に、天明３年【１７８３年】の大噴火では、今でも鎌原村が埋没したままといわれます。

　美しい姿の浅間山ですが、活火山なので今後も十分に注意しなくてはなりません。私が中学生のときも大噴火し、噴煙が５０００mほど立ち上り、その後、風に乗った火山灰が５０㎞離れた私の倉賀野町でも音を立てて降った記憶があります。

Dear my overseas friends who are interested in active volcano

　The day before yesterday was extremely cold that Mt. Asama had its first snowfall. This photo was taken by me yesterday at 3pm while walking along the bank of Kabra-River at Kibe-Town in Takasaki-city. A day passed, but the top of Onioshidashi on the north side (right side) looks faintly white still now.

　Meanwhile, as you can see, volcanic smoke is rising vigorously from the crater at the summit [2568m]. When I was in my twenties, I had climbed this summit twice, once from the Komoro side in the west and once from the Mine no Chaya side in Gumma Prefecture in the east, and the splendor of the panoramic view of the Kanto Plain including the meandering Tone-River, is still etched in my mind. The summit is a huge crater with a circumference of about 1km, I guess.

　The crater stands vertically like a bucket, and is estimated to be about 200m deep. At both times, smoke was coming out from the middle of the cliff inside the crater, and I could smell sulfur. This situation has probably continued for millions of years. In particular, it is said that the huge eruption in 1783 left Kamabara-village buried even today.

　Although Mt. Asama has a beautiful appearance, it is an active volcano, so we must continue to be careful. When I was a junior high school student, there was a huge eruption, and volcanic smoke rose about 5,000 meters. I remember volcanic ash carried by the wind making a loud noise in my hometown of Kuragano, 50 km away.

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